Week beginning April 8th - Lamb tagine and kumara pie

To put it mildly, spring has arrived. Even if it's not a full blown bloom of flowers and new born lambs, new exciting produce is starting to make an appearance. This means we have more variety coming out of Kaffeine's kitchen.

Starting with the salads we have a deconstructed spring lamb tagine. Traditionally cooked with lemons, olives, prunes and almonds and served with couscous, we will be cooking lamb and red peppers with whole lemons and warm spices. Made separately is the element that represents almonds, prunes and olives in tagine cooking. I have used dates in stead of prunes which are then stuffed with an olive tapenade that have been infused with cherry blossom and then slowly baked to permeate all the flavours together. Cherry blossom when brewed in warm to hot water gives off a very distinct and strong almond marzipan flavour. This liquid is then used to bind a paste made from olives and stale bread, thus creating all the taste and smells of a traditional tagine in a healthy salad.

Our second salad on offer is a balance of flavours and texture. A blend of pineapple, gorgonzola, Brazil nuts, coriander, radish and foraged sea beet. This is a raw combination of sweet, salty, creamy and bitter. I like to think of this salad as afternoon muesli, fibrous and sustaining.

The last salad is guilt-free and, like our second salad, it is completely raw. Based on an Asian coleslaw this is just what you need to trim down if you're preparing yourself for a summer on the beach.

For the cooler days this week we have shrimp soup on offer. Loosely based on a Brazilian broth made with seafood, long grain rice and coconut milk. A tad spicy and fragrant, good for moving the winter sniffles along to next year.

However if you want to be indulgent and ignore your conscience I recommend this week's kumara pie. Kumara is a white flesh sweet potato from New Zealand. Not as sweet as their orange cousin and have a slight smoky and caramelised flavour when baked. I will also be adding freshly foraged ramsons leaves and naughty full fat pungent camembert.

We hope you enjoy this week's menu as much as we have putting it together and as much as we will enjoy serving it to you.

Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.50
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.50
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.70 (add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Ciabatta roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.90
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 4.00
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Coffee, cherry and walnut toast 2.30
Banana bread 2.40

Porridge - Served with rhubarb and raspberry compote, chopped nuts, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 3.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.80
Pain au chocolat 2.40
Almond croissants 2.80

Baked Treats
Sweet Muffins: Blueberry and bran  2.20
Savoury Scone: Pancetta, asparagus and cheddar 2.20
Cherry, coconut and chocolate friands 2.20
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.40
White chocolate blondies 2.40
Portuguese tarts 2.00
ANZAC cookies 1.80
Afgan cookies 1.80

Lunch
Soup: Shrimp soup 4.50

French retro baguettes 4.90
Baked tomberry tomatoes and red onion with fennel hummus, rocket

Corned beef, gruyere, hot mustard, pickled onions, gherkins, spinach

Foccacias 5.00
Ham, roasted rhubarb, mature cheddar, basil and rocket
Mushroom, welsh rarebit and spinach

Salads: 5.50/6.50
Lemon roasted lamb and red peppers, baked dates stuffed with cherry blossom and olive tapenade, quinoa.
Pineapple, gorgonzola, brazil nuts, coriander, breakfast radish and sea beet.
Mooli, carrot and red onion coleslaw with rice wine vinegar, chilli and parsley

Tart: 4.00 or 7.50 with salad
Kumara, ramson and camembert pie